A convicted heroin and cocaine trafficker is behind two of the three biggest donations to the campaign of Aisha Braveboy, a state House of Delegates candidate in Prince George’s District 25, according toan Examiner investigation.
Meir Duke, of Reisterstown, said Thursday he has never met Braveboy. The candidate does not know about his 1990 guilty plea to charges of conspiring to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin, Duke said, or the four years he spent in federal prison for the crime.
“She doesn’t know about me,” he said.
Duke said he gave Braveboy $4,000 because he’s fed up with how police in Prince George’s County responded to an incident at a College Park shoe store he owns. Duke said he owns 50 shoe stores in several states including Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Of the 13 Maryland stores, eight are in Prince George’s County. But Duke said the donations and his businesses are “legitimate.” His decision to contribute to Braveboy’s campaign, Duke said, came solely on the recommendation of an acquaintance, not to cull favor with any particular politician.
“I don’t need these people,” he said. “These people need me.”
Numerous attempts Thursday to contact Braveboy for this story were unsuccessful.
A Mitchellville resident, Braveboy has worked as a manager of land acquisition and real property in the Prince George’s County Office of Central Services since 2005. Braveboy’s campaign fund, the Friends of Aisha Braveboy, had raised $38,325 through Tuesday. The largest donation, $8,000, came from the Vision For 2006 Slate, whose members are County Executive Jack Johnson, County Council Member Marilynn Bland, D-District 9, and District 26 Del. Obie Patterson.
According to information from the Maryland State Board of Elections, the next largest contributions came on June 21 from two companies — $1,500 from Bare Feet Enterprises in Owings Mills and $2,500 from 4004 Branch Avenue of Baltimore. Duke is listed as the registered agent for both companies by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.
A spokesman forthe Center for Responsive Politics said he did not know of anything preventing candidates from taking money from convicted criminals.
“But the question is, is it a politically smart thing to do?” said Massie Ritsch. “Accepting campaign contributions from certain kinds of donors sometimes isn’t worth the political cost.”
Duke said he saw no issue with the idea of the contribution.
“I’m a member of society,” he said. “If you commit a crime, you don’t have to die, you have to keep on living.”
The donation was a “nice gesture,” Duke said.
“I might need her tomorrow,” he said, “or in a year or two years.”
The checkered past of Meir Duke
Meir Duke, the Reisterstown businessman who gave $4,000 to the state House campaign of Aisha Braveboy, has a controversial past beyond a 1990 drug conviction:
» Duke pleaded guilty in 1990 to charges of conspiring to distribute and possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine. He spent about four years in federal prison.
» In 1992, a man recently released from prison wrote bogus letters on Habitat for Humanity letterhead asking for Duke and two other men to be assigned to a work-release program with the charity. The request was denied but an appeals court document said Duke later unsuccessfully used the letter to petition the courts for a reduction in his sentence.
» In 2001, Duke received more than $165,000 from the city of Baltimore to move one of his shoe stores 100 feet down a block and out of a west-side zone scheduled for redevelopment. An investigation revealed Duke was not entitled to relocation assistance, but it is unclear whether he was allowed to keep the payment.
» Duke said in April that he will not renew the lease of a swinger’s club that rents a property he owns in Catonsville after a neighborhood group protested activities going on at the Tabu Social Club.
» An anti-monopoly suit brought against Duke and his shoe store chain by a Chicago shoe store company was dismissed in mid-July.
